Just before Christmas, the coalition (CPS) (CPS), the American Network Action Action Network, made a conference connection in which they recorded a huge success they have achieved this year, and try to apply these successes this year.
The organization aims to reform our justice system in criminal matters, which both liberals and conservatives agree, have become unfair, unfair and extremely exorbitant, especially when it comes to home drug criminals. The network is a combination of an organization from every political spectrum belt: American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Tax Reform, Center for American Progress, Faith and Freedom Coalition, NAACP, Right on Crime and Freedomworks. In the Senate, Senator Mike Lee (R-U) was a driving force in this matter, considering it necessary in the fight for conservative values. When in October he turned to the Heritage Foundation on this subject, he said: “The most successful justice reformers in criminal matters in the 20th century were in favor of conservative goals: law and order based on responsible use of government rights; compact communities; Living civil society; strong, intact families; and personal responsibility. “
This arm of public security activities was only busy in July, but he was a great success in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where the legislators have been adopted provisions to improve the possibility of re -entering for former criminals, reformed their process of forfeiting civil assets, and tried reduce the prison population.
Holly Harris, executive director of the American Network Action Action Network, noticed that their success was so speedy that the organization was looking for over the triple number of destinations in 2016, from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Maryland, Kentucky and Louisian in their sight . Harris added that Louisiana, which is the highest imprisoned world, would serve as a flagship, especially from the reform of the judiciary in criminal matters He became a problem To debate during the last governor’s elections.
At the federal level, the Congress moved many bills forward in both chambers, sponsored by members of both parties. Speaker Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell believe that these bills should move to the floor to vote, because they were excluded from the commission with double -sided support.
Harris said that it was to the network of justice, justifying the case to legislators, their staffs and their voters to obtain a comprehensive act on the reform of justice in criminal matters to the president’s desk.
“Double -sided legislators were able to develop the provisions of the reform of conviction in both the Chamber and the Senate this year, gaining support for supporters throughout the country,” said Sakira Cook, political advisor at a leadership conference for civil rights and human rights.
The Cook organization has been involved in this fight since President Obama signed the act on sincere conviction of 2010, which reformed the way the federal government follows people with crack and powder cocaine. Currently, the focal point of the leadership conference is the reforming of the mandatory minimum conviction, which they influence the black and Latin Americans disproportionately. Fifty percent of federal prisoners are low, without violence of drug criminals having long mandatory minimum judgments for drug -related crimes. Cook added that 2015 was a good year because the bills from the Chamber and Senate were excluded from the committee.
Jason Pye, a communication director at Freedomworks, said that there is an unprecedented support for the reform of the judiciary in criminal matters from both sides, which is the opportunity to develop progress last year. He emphasized that the first quarter of the year would be crucial because there are ironing problems, including the most obvious obstacle: this is the year of elections. Freedomworks supports the Act on reform and amendments to convictions in the Senate and the Act on the reform of the judgment, which was drawn up in the Chamber. Since both of the legislation acts were delivered from the committee, Pye said that Freedomworks would mobilize its bottom -up army – 6.9 million mighty – to support their transition.
Marc Levin from Texas regarding the crime told people listening in the case that he had been involved in motion since 2005 and noticed that Texas had a 24 % decrease in crime and 12 percent of the imprisonment indicator, when the state pulled away from the construction of prisons and focused on justice reinvestment programs. He emphasized that although there was progress at federal level – progress – focus must remain at the state level, above all.
Levin also mentioned other states that made progress in this area. Alabama has passed the reinvestment package aimed at reducing the exploding prison population, which prioritizes the space for violent criminals, while expanding the capabilities of homes of violence and ensuring supervised exemption to promote successful re -entering society.
In Utah, drug possession at a low level is no longer a crime, but an offense that according to Levin will decrease in the prison population, which means more taxpayers’ savings. And in Illinois, Governor Rauner founded a task group to reduce the prison population of his state in the next few years.
However, in the case of Texas Levin, he said that the last session was productive and the state legislator adapts the threshold of real estate crime to inflation, so the system does not go to the “autopilot”, which can make such crimes unnecessarily tough over time. More importantly, overcrowding is a right to another area of ​​crime interest.
Levin has recently been appointed to the Commission by the Supreme Court in Texas to supervise 1,500 crimes outside the Penal Code, such as 11 crimes related to the set of oysters.
However, legal barriers for those who were in the system are another front in reforming our system. Rebecca Vallas, director of politics for counteracting poverty at the Center for American Progress (CAP), noticed that the key priority for CAP is to remove these obstacles.
One in three Americans has a kind of criminal register. This can lead to grave restrictions in relation to employment, apartment, education and vocational training. One of the American children has at least one parent with criminal registration. This can potentially affect language development, school performance, health and potential for employment and earnings when they reach adulthood. Vallas said that even a petite criminal register, including arrest, which never led to conviction, could be a life sentence with poverty.
She praised the Act on the reform and amendments to the conviction, which contains provisions that allow people to seal criminal registers – and ensure more exact checks of the past. Vallas also mentioned that just employment regulations are being considered in the hill.
As for the provisions regarding the “ban”, which removes queries about criminal history from federal job applications, and other rules regarding employment in justice – the change was also speedy. Only in 2015, six states – Georgia, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Ohio – adopted the principles of Ban the Box and Fair Chance Politics, called a total of 19 states and over 100 cities that adopted similar regulations.
In the US, bills are also considered that would allow people with minor crimes to seal criminal registers. Texas has signed such provisions. In Pennsylvania, a similar project was adopted by a republican legislator and is in the face of one more procedural step before he goes to the desk of Tom Wolf’s government for the signature. However, the state undergoes a long budget battle, so it would not be shocking if it was suspended.
In addition, some states automatically consider sealing documentation for people who committed minor crimes if they were free from crime for a certain time.
“With the development of the justice reform in criminal matters, we expect cooperation with double -sided legislators in Congress and in state legislation in order to introduce politicians who give people with criminal records significant chances for a second chance,” added Vallas.
Before Christmas, the Department of Justice gave the reforms of the judiciary in criminal matters the early present: they suspended A program for forfeiture of civil assets worth $ 1.2 billion.
You can read the annual Network Justice report Here.
